Future collaboration

The community pharmacists and general practitioners who reported that they were not currently involved in any interprofessional meetings and/or projects were asked if they would be interested in having joint meetings and/or if they would be interested in participating in joint projects. The community pharmacists and general practitioners who responded positively to these two questions were then asked what areas they would want to discuss at meetings and/or what particular areas they would like to work on in the form of a joint project. The question of interest in collaboration by local general practitioners/community pharmacists respectively was also raised.

Meetings

Nineteen community pharmacists who reported that they did not currently attend regular meetings with local general practitioners were asked if they would like to have meetings with one or more of their local general practitioners. Thirteen pharmacists

Chapter 2 - Interviews with CPs and GPs

(seven pharmacists were proprietors - six of an independent pharmacy and one of a small chain of pharmacies; four pharmacists were managers; two were second pharmacists - one in a branch of a multiple and one in an independent pharmacy) responded that they would like to have meetings:

‘It would be a good idea because it would help us to get to know each other \ 7 think it would be a great help to both professions and the patient \

‘Meetings would be useful fo r improving the service... fo r improving relations \

Six pharmacists (four managers, one independent proprietor and one locum

pharmacist) were unsure as to whether they would like to have meetings with local general practitioners or not. The reservations expressed included:

7 don't know how useful it would be \

‘Possibly, but it would have to be well planned'. ‘It's difficult; it depends on the doctor

The 20 general practitioners were all asked if they would like to have meetings with one or more local pharmacists (n = 19, data missing for one). Seven general

practitioners responded positively and comments included: ‘Something fruitful could come out o f it '.

‘Good idea '.

‘It is ju st nice to get together \

general practitioner partner.

Four general practitioners were unsure about having meetings with local community pharmacists and comments included:

‘I f there is a goal - yes - we will have meetings; i f there is no goal... We more or less thrash out our problems on a daily basis anyway \

‘We discuss things on the phone and I don't know i f we could discuss things any further or not \

‘I f you are going to have any meetings at all, it would have to have a definite purpose \

Eight general practitioners responded negatively and comments included:

‘We have no problems in our relationships with the pharmacists so there is no need’.

7 am quite happy with the contacts that we have. I don't see the purpose o f having any deeper contacts ’.

7 don't know that there would be much to be gained by it...I can get all the help I need’.

7 don't think my local chemists have got much to add’.

7 think the local pharmacist is accessible and there is very little extra to gain [by form al meetings] ’.

Two general practitioners; one who was unsure about having joint meetings and one who responded negatively, both felt that having the FHSA pharmaceutical adviser attend meetings would be more helpful than a local community pharmacist:

‘Perhaps because she [the pharmaceutical adviser] has an overall view o f our prescribing that is actually more helpful to us ’.

Chapter 2 - Interviews with CPs and GPs

7 think there would be a place fo r a neutral adviser....who could give objective views

The community pharmacists and general practitioners who were unsure about joint meetings and those who responded positively to the idea of joint meetings, were asked if there were any areas that they would want to discuss. The community pharmacists suggested a number of areas that could be discussed including a variety of prescribing issues such as: advice to be given to patients with their prescription medicines; the number of days treatment provided on any one prescription, including a consideration of calendar packs and pack sizes; the prescribing of dressings and vaccines and repeat prescribing. Other areas highlighted were: formulary

development; drug interactions; cost issues; collaboration in patient therapy; additional services for particular patient groups; health promotion and over the counter prescribing. The general practitioners felt that the following areas could be covered at joint meetings: improvements that could be made to patient services; problems that community pharmacists encounter with prescriptions; drug costs; over the counter prescribing; dispensing for drug addicts; emergency supplies of

prescription only medicines and formulary development.

Projects

The 17 community pharmacists and 18 general practitioners who reported that they were not involved in any joint project were asked if they would like to work on a particular project with any of their local general practitioners/community pharmacists

respectively.

Nine pharmacists (four independent proprietor pharmacists, four pharmacy managers and the second pharmacist in an independent pharmacy) replied that they would like to work on a joint project. Three pharmacists (two independent proprietors and one manager) were unsure about participating in a joint project. Five pharmacists (three managers, one locum pharmacist and one proprietor of a small chain) said that they would not want to participate in a joint project. The main reservation and objection to participating was the time involved:

W e are so pressed normally with paper work and other commitments that we really haven’t got much time \

W e are tied down fo r the hours that we are here; even i f I do deliveries I lose business and it is a very long day already \

Four general practitioners responded that they would be interested in participating in a joint project; three of the four were single handed practitioners or worked in a two general practitioner practice. Three general practitioners were unsure about

participating in a joint project and 11 general practitioners said that they would not want to participate in a joint project. The main reservation and objection again was time:

7 don’t think I would have the time

One general practitioner who responded negatively also felt that a joint project would not achieve anything:

Chapter 2 - Interviews with CPs and GPs

The community pharmacists and general practitioners who expressed an interest in participating in a project were asked if there were any particular areas they would like to work in. The main question was followed by a prompt: Anything particularly frustrating that you would like to discuss and work on with one or more of your local general practitioners/community pharmacists or perhaps a particular patient group that you feel you could provide a greater service for by collaborating.

Two pharmacists - one independent proprietor and one small chain branch manager - were very enthusiastic to get involved in a project with local general practitioners. The independent proprietor pharmacist wanted to collaborate with local general practitioners on a smoking cessation project that he had already initiated at his pharmacy. The second pharmacist was hoping to join an FHSA programme for formulary development. The other fields that were raised by the pharmacists as possible project areas were: prescribing issues including generic prescribing, repeat prescribing and PACT data analysis; improving the patient medication records held at the surgeries and the care of three specific patient groups - asthmatics, diabetics and hypertensive patients.

The general practitioners who expressed an interest in participating in a joint project mentioned the following areas that they would like to work in: prescribing of

appliances; prescribing of borderline substances; care of asthma patients; treatment of dyspepsia; treatment of dysmenorrhoea and referral of patients to their general

Would your local general practitioners / community pharmacists be interested in participating ?

In order to cover all aspects of future joint meetings and projects, the community pharmacists and general practitioners who were not already collaborating in regular joint meetings or in a joint project, were asked if they thought that their local general

practitioners/community pharmacists would be interested in participating in joint meetings or projects respectively.

Four pharmacists thought that local general practitioners would be interested in participating, three thought that they might be, three pharmacists felt that local general practitioners would not be interested in participating and six did not know (data missing for one; three pharmacists were involved in joint projects, including the one pharmacist who had regular joint meetings with local general practitioners).

Four general practitioners thought that local community pharmacists might be interested in participating, two felt that they would probably not be interested, one general practitioner felt that local pharmacists would definitely not be interested in participating and nine general practitioners did not know (data missing for two; two general practitioners were involved in joint projects).